To effectively manage vehicles, heavy equipment and related machinery, it is essential that accurate information relating to the operation of such equipment be monitored, recorded, and analyzed. It is known within the prior art to employ device monitors that track and record critical data relating to the operation of one or more vehicles in order to effectively implement cost-effective decisions regarding the continued use or maintenance of such equipment. Such monitoring devices require a host power source. Unfortunately, current monitoring systems do not regulate the amount of electrical current consumed from their host power source based upon the operational state of the vehicle being monitored. Current monitoring devices either operate in full power simultaneously with the operation of the motor displaced within the vehicle being monitored (meaning that they are non-operational when the motor of the monitored equipment is not operational); or, the monitoring device continues to run at full power even though the motor of the vehicle is not operational.
When the monitoring device continues to operate at full power while the vehicle is not operational, the battery of the host vehicle (or a self-contained battery of the monitor, if so equipped) is eventually drained of power thereby rendering the monitoring device inoperable. In any event, whether the monitoring device is designed to operate only when the motor of the vehicle is operational, or whether the monitoring device becomes inoperable as a result of a drained battery during prolonged periods where the vehicle is not in use (where the motor is not charging the host battery) or where the monitoring device only utilizes a self contained battery that is not recharged by the vehicle, valuable data pertaining to the vehicle's operation cannot be captured or transmitted to the end users.
Thus, it would be desirable to have an equipment monitoring system method and/or device which overcomes these and other shortcomings of the prior art.